


A New Year's Eve

by april_snakehole



Series: Christmas and New Years [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Marauders, Marauders' Era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-31
Updated: 2016-12-31
Packaged: 2018-09-13 18:03:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9135295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/april_snakehole/pseuds/april_snakehole
Summary: Lily goes to James' New Years party.





	

It’s New Year’s Eve and Lily Evans is standing in front of James Potter’s front door, and isn’t entirely sure how she got there. She planned to be alone this New Years, to cry and think of her mum and how she would make her proud. Get some really good wallowing in. Instead here she stands.

Then Mary squeaks with excitement and she’s reminded how this all happened: since James invited her to New Years last week at the Christmas party, Lily has had no peace. Sirius sent an owl a day and Mary kept just popping up at her house, looking at her pleadingly and telling her about a cute dress she bought just for the occasion, please let’s go to this party, Lily. 

And Lily is exhausted and sad and misses her mother and hates that she’ll never see this new year. So she couldn’t put up much of a fight. 

So here she stands, tugging at the very short skirt Mary made her wear and nervous, stupidly, to see James Potter. Who has been so nice to her since her mum passed. And who she’d really like to hug again. 

Sirius opens the door. His eyes fly open in mock-shock and he cries, “Stars and Spells, it’s Lily Evans in the flesh!” 

“And Mary McDonald,” Mary huffs. 

“I—wow, I’m shocked! Shocked I say! Seeing you here!” Sirius cries, pulling the girls both in. 

“You sent me daily owls with threats and bribes to get me to come to this thing, Black,” Lily growls. 

“Well, yes, but you’re kind of late and also when have you ever listened to me before?” Sirius says. He pushed them forward, into the sitting room where the Christmas party was. There are less people; James wasn’t lying before about it really just being the Marauders and a few people Sirius drunkenly invited. 

James’ face lights up when she enters the room, and Lily thinks briefly that this is going to end poorly, because her heart constricts when she sees him, too. 

He walks over to her quickly and envelops her in a hug. 

“Hi—er, is that okay? Are we hugging friends?” James says breathlessly when he pulls away. 

“Sure! Why not?” Lily laughs uncomfortably. 

It’s nice, this small party. There’s butterbeer and some mulled wine that Lily likes quite a bit, and Marlene is there. They chat for awhile and Marlene is surprised but happy to find that Lily follows the Holyhead Harpies pretty religiously. It’s nice to forget, for awhile, that she’s so sad she hasn’t slept through the night without a nightmare since her mum died. 

Lily hasn’t talked to any of the boys all night, and feels silly for putting so much into this night, worrying about James and how he would act since they had reached a strangely charged friendship at the Christmas party. 

A trumpet sounds from the direction of the kitchen and every head in the room whips around to see Sirius and James walk into the room with trays of champagne flutes, the former also shooting confetti out of his wand. 

“Gather ‘round, one and all,” Sirius bellows. 

With some difficulty, champagne is passed around until everyone has a glass. 

“Two minutes until midnight. Who wants a snog?” Sirius yells and Lily glances over at Mary, who’s all but tripping over herself to casually saunter in his direction. 

James props himself on the arm of the chair she’s sitting on and Lily narrows her eyes slightly, hoping to appear stern even if she can’t quite wipe the smile off of her face. 

“Just because I agreed to come here tonight doesn’t mean I’ll kiss you at midnight.” 

“Huh? What? Who said that?” James says, looking around dramatically before finally looking down at her with a grin. “Oh! Lily! I didn’t know you were sitting here.”

“Prat,” she shakes her head but she’s smiling. She pushes him, too lightly to make him fall but he tilts over dramatically anyway. 

“No need for violence, Evans. You’re short, you know. Hard to spot sometimes, even with orange hair,” he says, reaching forward to pat the top of her head. 

“Ten!” Sirius has amplified his voice.  
Lily glances around the room. She catches Remus’s eye, which seems to be trained on her curiously, but the boy looks away quickly. 

“Nine!” 

She looks back up at James, but he’s just looking around the room and smiling at his guests.

“Eight, tossers!”

She wonders if kissing him would be a bad idea. 

“Seven!”

It would. It wouldn’t be fair to James. How was that even a thought in her head? 

But damnit, his lips looked so soft. 

“Oh, shit—FOUR!”

Not fair to James. 

“Three!”

Not fair, but it would be a nice distraction for her.

“Two.”

But her pain couldn’t be an excuse to use him. 

“ONE! HAPPY NEW YEAmpphh—“ Sirius’s voice turns muffled halfway through as, presumably, his mouth is covered by someone else’s. 

James takes her hand and raises it to his lips. “Happy New Year, Lily,” he says and presses his lips gently to her palm. Lily smiles. Less intense than a kiss on the lips, but certainly not as chaste as kissing her on the back of the hand. James Potter: nothing if not bold. 

What the hell, she thinks. Life is short, after all. She leans up and kisses James on the cheek. “Happy New Year, James.” 

She pulls away just enough to look at him, and has to grin. His eyes are closed in bliss and there’s a goofy smile spread across.

“Well, it’s certainly happy so far.”


End file.
